


Starry-Eyed

by Fandomgeekery



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Alternate Universe - Scientists, Astronaut AU, Astronauts, Crushes, First Kiss, Friends to Lovers, International Space Station, JAXA, M/M, NASA, Past Space Expeditions, Pining, Science, Space Nerds Flirting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-16
Updated: 2019-04-16
Packaged: 2020-01-12 21:21:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18454874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fandomgeekery/pseuds/Fandomgeekery
Summary: A NASA astronaut and a JAXA astronaut are back on Earth after an expedition to the International Space Station. Messy circumstances fail to keep them apart.





	Starry-Eyed

**Author's Note:**

> Just something I wrote in between the stress of classes! Hope you enjoy!

Alfred raced down the university hallway, suitcase roaring after him. FINALLY he found the room he was looking for and shoved open the auditorium door, only five minutes late--! The commotion drew a few gazes, but Alfred couldn’t care less.

There he was. Alfred let out a breath, standing there at the top of the center aisle.

The presenter looked up from his podium as the door swung back closed.

Alfred dropped his carry on duffel bag to wave. Kiku stumbled over his words, recognizing him from across the auditorium. A smile broke across Alfred’s face at the reaction. _He’d made it._

Kiku refound his place in his script, blushing the color of Mars to have become so distracted in the middle of his speech. Alfred couldn’t wipe away his grin as he hauled his bag back over his shoulder to find a place as close to the front as he could to wait out Kiku’s big presentation. And when Kiku looked back to the audience, his eyes sought out Alfred's. 

 _Only_ Alfred's.

Alfred’s heart beat faster every time those eyes locked with his, and they did. Those eyes kept finding his, actually. Over and over. The eyes of a friend unlike any other. And, not for the first time, Alfred dared to wonder--to _imagine_ , to _dream_ \--if maybe there was something else weighting those glances, something else in the touches of their hands as they’d worked alongside one another. Lingering gazes, lingering hands…

Kiku was his friend and, not too long ago, his coworker. The two of them had been uniquely situated so they most definitely could NOT be anything else; he’d gotten the Talk from his bosses a billion times over--the International Space Station was a STRICTLY PROFESSIONAL setting.

And then getting back home--to Earth, at least--well, shit… Everything had happened so fast. It was a whirlwind of photographs of the astronauts returned, it was bundling them up into separate medical facilities, and then it was shipping them off to their respective countries without ANY sort of goodbyes to the people he’d just shared REALLY close quarters with in SPACE for MONTHS!

Stealing him away from his new best friend… No goodbye. No email. No phone numbers! He didn’t even think to bring that shit up until they were back on the terrestrial side of things--!

But now he’d made it here… and he could start to try to catch his breath. Alfred couldn’t understand a damn word Kiku was saying, but he liked listening to him say it anyway. And whatever he was saying--stuff about his time on the ISS--he was saying it while he was _looking_ at him. Alfred was captured by his gravity.

And then the talk was over, and Kiku was politely taking questions and trying to keep his face even and sightly for the photographs sure to be plastered across news outlets. And soon after that, people were pouring out of the auditorium, and Alfred was standing against the outflow of people and Kiku was finding his eyes once more, and then--and _then_ \-- Kiku gestured with his chin for Alfred to follow him before disappearing backstage.

Alfred fought the people with his elbows, muscling his way toward the front, to a side door, _anything_ \--

But the event security stopped him first, talking at him in Japanese, and Alfred was shaking his head, pleading, “ _No, wait, I know him_ \--”

Alfred was at the ‘pointing at his NASA hoodie’ stage in trying to explain who he was past the language barrier and nearly to the ‘break out his official Twitter account’ stage when a gentle voice came to his rescue, along with a gentle hand on his arm that had his heart leaping into his throat. “I did not expect to see you here, Captain Jones.”

Alfred choked on the laugh that bubbled up within him at the formality of the carefully-practiced English he’d gotten so used to, “H-Hey! What’s up, Doc?” Al slung an arm over Kiku’s narrow shoulders, pointing at him triumphantly for the security guards, “See! I _told_ you I knew him!”

Kiku spoke a few words with the guards that allowed them some space before delicately removing himself from under Al’s arm. His heart fell a little, but then Kiku nodded behind him to the reporters who had only by some miracle not noticed the two of them. “Come backstage with me,” Kiku proposed, “There aren’t any cameras, even if there are… some of my superiors.” There was never any peace. Yeah, Alfred’s bosses were pretty pissed at him for making such an impromptu trip to Japan when he was supposed to be scheduling visits to, like, schools and shit.

“Sure thing, dude!” he was way too quick to agree, getting a tiny little smile to pull at Kiku’s lips. And now that they were off the space station, Al didn’t have any problem at all admitting it to himself: _God_ , Kiku was pretty. If Al had any sort of type, his best friend would definitely fit the bill. _Fuck._ He was giving him butterflies.

As advertised, there were dudes in suits backstage who watched the two of them duck behind the curtain with a dull interest. Kiku made a point about standing well out of their earshot. It was such a weird vibe back on Earth. In space, the crew were scientists in a lab. They were scientists from all over the world, doing research and performing experiments alongside one another, and they were _friends_ ; they _had_ to be, working under such conditions. But… On _Earth_ … It was a weird-ass political thing. They weren’t just scientists trained to work in the coolest lab on _and_ off of Earth; they were never just folks with the exceedingly rare bragging rights of saying ‘I’m a fucking astronaut, baby!’ It was like they represented an entire nation, like they were sparkly, shiny trophies for their governments to tote and flash around.

Kiku looked like a model citizen to him, in his slacks and tidy button-up with a neatly-stitched little JAXA logo across the breast pocket--some _official_ merch right there. Al, for one, had gotten the outfit he wore on his 15 hour flight from Target, like any self-respecting NASA employee.

“It’s… good to see you, Alfred,” Kiku kept his voice low, shaking his head in wonder, “But... how did you get here?”

“A plane!” Alfred helpfully informed him, getting at least an unimpressed pity-smile for it, “I, uh,” he amended, rubbing at his neck, “I wanted to see you!”-- Fuck, he hoped he wasn’t blushing as hard as he thought he was-- “I didn’t have contact information or anything, so I… Googled you…? And uh. I saw that you were gonna be giving a big speech. And then I saw that I could totally catch a flight to see it! I had to support you for your important presentation, man!” He laughed, “Is that weird…?”

Kiku watched him for a moment, pretty brown eyes scanning his with an emotion Al didn’t know how to read behind them, “No…” he decided, “No, I’m glad you’re here, Alfred--” That phrase alone was enough to set off fireworks in his heart-- “We should catch up, since you’ve come such a long way. I can show you the city.”

“Yeah! Yeah, that would be awesome!” Al gave the suit dudes a sideways nod. “They been keeping you busy?”

Kiku sighed lightly, which was all the answer he needed. Alfred offered a sympathetic smile. “It’s part of the job,” Kiku shrugged. “The public is always very curious about what I do, what it’s like; I don’t mind answering their questions… It’s just that…” Kiku trailed off, words failing him.

“It’s a lot,” Al finished for him.

Kiku nodded, thoughtful, “It is.” He paused. “You must understand their expectations better than anybody.”

Was that loaded? Alfred felt like there was something there. Maybe Kiku didn’t mean to be implying anything; English wasn’t his first language, after all. It could all just be a miscommunication, Kiku’s words dipped in some imagined meaning conjured up by wishful thinking. _Damn_ , Al had it bad.

Yet before he could say anything stupid, Kiku noticed all his bags. “Did you-Did you come straight here from the _airport_?”

“I didn’t wanna miss your talk!”

Kiku’s eyes sparkled. “And did you like my talk?”

“Yeah, I thought you did great!”

“Alfred.”

“What?”

“You don’t speak Japanese.”

“So what? You’ve got that great stage presence, Kiks! And you answered all the questions! That’s pretty great! So what did they want to know? Did they ask about your sexy American crewmate?”

Kiku laughed--a small exhale through the nose--and it had Al’s heart growing three sizes. “Regrettably--” ‘ _Regrettably_ ,’ aww bless his heart-- “No. Like most people, they only wanted the details of how we use the restroom on the station.”

“It’s a very exciting process, Kiks. Ya gotta fill ‘em in.”

Kiku rolled his eyes. “Naturally.” Their eyes met again in the ensuing silence and the quiet stretched between them like taffy. And Alfred couldn’t look away.

One of the suit dudes called out to Kiku, shaking the two of them out of it. Kiku gritted his teeth at whatever was said, jaw working. Annoyed, though his voice was easy as ever when he called back what sounded like a reassurance. “I’m sorry, Alfred--” And he _did_ sound like he was-- “I have arrangements to meet with some people after this--”

“Oh, that’s fine--!”

“No. You’ve come such a long way,” Kiku shook his head, and swallowed. “But if you wouldn’t mind…” he met his eyes, and again there was _something_ \--there had to be _something_ \--that caused his stomach and all its butterflies to flip flop. “I’d like to see you afterwards. This evening--” Kiku retrieved a pen, and took Alfred’s hand to scribble an address onto it. His thumb curled over Alfred’s wrist, the touch innocent and light and _burning_. “--My hotel,” he explained, and Alfred’s breath started coming faster despite himself. Kiku still hadn’t let go of his hand. His thin fingers were cold. It made Alfred want to hold his hand close, warm it up. “I’ll be back at 8.”

One of the suit guys called again. “I’ll see you then,” Alfred gave him a small smile. Kiku hesitated, shifting on his feet. There was a strand of silky black hair out of place, and Alfred wanted to smooth it back for him-- _Gah, stop it._ It was nice to see Kiku, even if it turned out it was only ever as friends. If he could NOT fuck it up, that would be GREAT...

“Alfred...” his name was always held with care in Kiku’s mouth, assuring every sound was correct. Kiku paused and rethought whatever he’d had on his mind, instead going with a different truth, “I… I still can’t believe you’re here.”

“I didn’t get to say goodbye.”

Kiku’s face softened.

“You probably shouldn’t keep your friends waiting, though.” Al gave him an apologetic smile, “I’ll see you at 8, Kiks.” Kiku nodded, but he hovered in place. Something unfinished between them. In an instant of thoughtless courage, Alfred opened his arms to his friend-- “May I?”

A smile broke over Kiku’s face, as did a flush of red. Another glance at the men waiting on him.

And then Kiku was in his arms. He was so warm, and he was small, and as Alfred squeezed him tight he couldn’t help but marvel at how well they fit together and he prayed Kiku couldn’t hear his racing heart and also his hair smelled really nice and Alfred wanted to bury his face in it, _oh my God--_

Kiku pulled away from his short-circuiting companion, smoothing his dress shirt with a cool professionalism. “8 o’clock.” He turned to leave, but paused to peer back over his shoulder, “You should bring the jacket; I always liked your jacket,” a smile, then, and Kiku followed the guys in suits to their car.

‘Bring the jacket?’ The jacket?! What did THAT mean?! Oh, shit. Oh, shit! That MEANT something, didn’t it?! FUCK, Alfred wasn’t good at subtext. Or subtlety. FUCK. The jacket? The jacket. The jacket was kind of a big deal back home. It was nothing but an old aviator’s jacket he’d added some patches to the sleeves of: an American flag, a NASA logo, the symbol for their ISS expedition… And the bisexual flag. Couldja imagine which patch it was that made quite a few headlines?

So… Kiku saying he ‘liked the jacket’.... What the FUCK did that mean?! That was gay, right? That was totally his way of discreetly telling Al that he liked dudes, right? Or was that his way of, like, being an ally trying to voice his support? GOD, why was this so hard?!

He looked down at the neat scrawl across his hand. 8:00. At his hotel room. Surely _that_ was gay, wasn’t it? Was inviting your fellow astronaut from the International Space Station to your hotel room in Japan a ‘guys being dudes’ thing? He guessed it was totally reasonable it _could_ be, given the circumstances…

HE JUST HAD AN ENORMOUS CRUSH ON HIS BEST FRIEND HE’D MET IN SPACE. And Alfred _valued_ that friendship! You don’t just squander the friendships you make doing science in space! But if this specific friend happened to be into men! And Alfred specifically! Well! He just thought that would be pretty fucking nifty!

Alfred typed the address into his phone for safekeeping, gave a two-fingered salute to the folks who were eyeing him wondering what his business was there, and wheeled his suitcase out of the auditorium.

By the time 8:00 rolled around, Alfred was certain his heart was going to jump out of his chest. He put on a bit of cologne and caught a cab, sinking into the seat and trying to remember to breathe. The whole way he was crawling with nerves and ‘ _what if_ ’s, all the things Kiku said swirling up a storm in his head. It had him sweating in his cool jacket right up until the cab driver pulled up to the hotel, almost tripping over himself in his haste to get out.

This was it. He took a calming breath, marching in. _Be cool, be cool, be cool_. Alfred poked the elevator button for Kiku’s floor. _It’s Kiku. It’s just Kiku. You look good. Try not to ruin everything. Be cool._

The doors opened with a pleasant ding. He gulped, stepping off. A sign informed him that Kiku’s room was right down the hall, but the walk took somewhere around a billion years and gathering himself to raise his fist to knock took even longer. He straightened up when Kiku opened the door a few seconds later… And just about spontaneously combusted at how his face lit up to see him. God, Alfred was such an ass. Kiku was his _friend_ and such a cool guy and-- “You’re right on time,” Kiku beamed.

“‘Course I am!” Alfred scoffed, like the idea of him not being on time was preposterous, “How was your meeting?” he asked, stepping into the room behind Kiku.

Kiku winced and shook his head, “I have always found it amazing how people in positions of authority can speak for _so long_ and yet say nothing at all.”

“Cheers, bro, I’ll drink to that.”

Kiku rolled his eyes, playful. “Now that you mention it, a little sake doesn’t sound like a bad idea.”

“ _Dude_ , is it really an astronaut get together until you can write off a couple refreshments as travel expenses?”

So then, there they were. Just guys being dudes, chilling side-by-side on a hotel bed, pouring one another some good ol’ room service sake, already giggling uncontrollably at each other’s stupid jokes before even taking a sip. It was like they'd never been apart. Outside, the world went on just fine without them. The hotel curtains gave them some respite from it--from its city noise, from its too-bright lights that hid the stars, from its ridiculous politics and expectations.

The sake was warm in his mouth and stomach. “You should come over to the States sometime--” Alfred commented, reigning himself back in a little after his laughing fit-- “When you could use a break from all this. We could take my truck out somewhere and go looking at the stars. Have a little star party.”

Kiku hummed into his cup, “Just you and I?” He wasn’t looking at him. _Fuck, fuck, maybe that was too strong._

Alfred blushed into his sake, swallowing his nerves in a deep swig of alcohol, “Hell yeah, man! No one else I’d rather hang out with. You, me, and a six pack sounds like a good time to me.” Al tipped the rest of the cup back, anything for a second not to see the impact of his stupidity, and then promptly fell into a bout of coughing. Great. Real smooth.

Kiku chuckled, and Al just about jumped out of his skin when Kiku’s hand covered Al’s hand over his cup. There was a twinkle in Kiku’s eyes when Alfred’s found his. Kiku brought Alfred’s hand nearer, steadying it to refill his cup for him. Oh. Okay. _Chill, Al, gosh._ “--Haha, thanks, man--” Alfred managed at the same time Kiku offered a sincere:

“--I would love that--”

They looked at each other a moment and Kiku’s fingers had yet to leave his. Lingering. Goosebumps prickled across Al’s shoulders.

Alfred cleared his throat, “I, uh, could bring my telescope. It’s a real cool one--programmable.”

The smile in Kiku’s eyes touched his lips once more, “And what are some of your favorite constellations to look at?”

Al puffed out his cheeks, “ _Oof_. That’s a hard one.” He shrugged a shoulder. “Hercules is pretty cool; he’s a hero--” He took another drink “--And what about you, Kiks? Any favorites? We can look at ‘em all.”

Kiku was contemplative a moment, “I’ve always found the Orion Nebula beautiful.” Kiku tilted his head, “But I really don’t mind what we look at, Alfred--” he took a breath-- “I think just being there with you would be enough.”  

Alfred scraped up an ounce of courage. “Dr. Honda,” he asked, sing-song just in case he was dead wrong about all this, “Are you flirting with me?”

Kiku blinked slowly. “Are you just noticing?”

A sharp zing flew through Al’s heart. HELL YEAH. “I mean, I was _really_ hoping…” Kiku met his eyes again, and this time-- _this time_ \--Alfred knew what he was seeing behind those pretty eyes. “I’ve been hoping since we were on the space station, Kiks,” he whispered.

They were so close, a breath away, and they drifted together of their own gravities, Alfred’s eyes slipping closed before their lips brushed for the first time. Alfred was holding his breath, remembering to catch it just before the two of them dove to press their lips firmly together. It was soft, and it was simple, and it was everything. Alfred couldn’t believe this was happening.  _Well_ , he’d been really hoping.

Kiku broke the kiss to set his sake to the side. Alfred did the same, figuring spilling the drink in Kiku’s lap wouldn’t set the best of moods, and then Kiku’s hand was on the side of his face, and their mouths were connected once more, and Alfred’s heart was thrilling in his chest, and Kiku was so gentle, and _God_ this was a dream.

Alfred melted into the warm slide of Kiku’s lips. Time took a little longer path than usual around them, letting them have their moment. And Alfred kissed his best friend, just like he’d dreamed of since they were in orbit, since they were two scientists gazing down at the Earth together, far, far from home.

Now, back on the terrestrial side of things, Alfred got the privilege of watching Kiku’s eyes flutter back open as he parted from him an inch to say, “You know, I think you definitely give the Orion Nebula a run for its money.” Alfred had thought it was charming, but Kiku scrunched his eyebrows in confusion, which was as adorable as it was embarrassing, “You…” Alfred elaborated, clearing his throat awkwardly, “You said you thought the Orion Nebula was beautiful. You could give it a run for its money.”

Understanding clicked in Kiku’s eyes, his mouth forming a little ‘o.’ Alfred was blushing something awful. They were silent a beat, just the sounds of the city outside. Then Kiku collapsed into laughter, smile wide and genuine and _way_ more beautiful than some old dust cloud.

And then they were falling back into the kiss, grins bumping clumsily against each other.

“So… Anyway...” Alfred mumbled against those lips in between kissing them, feeling like he’d recovered well from that, “What would you say to dinner?”


End file.
